


Complementary

by cherrytruck



Series: The Birkin Files [2]
Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Origin Story, more science, no warnings needed unless you're squeamish to some blood, ready steady cook (viruses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 06:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9373070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrytruck/pseuds/cherrytruck
Summary: Birkin starts to find himself becoming interested in a new woman who shows promising potential.





	

Birkin was working yet another typical day at the lab with his ever trusted colleague Albert. Now that Albert had gone up from an intern to a research partner, Birkin had other Umbrella employees make deliveries for him. Usually it was a quick turnover of new assistants; some didn’t speak very much to him, some clearly weren’t fans of his, some would never even make the delivery and Birkin would have to fetch the boxes himself or get Albert to do it for him, though he’d give his incompetent assistants the evil eye whenever he did manage to spot them slacking around.

Lately though, his new assistant had always arrived early, acted pleasant and showed genuine interest in Birkin’s projects, and it looked like she was here to stay. Birkin came back to his lab and it looked like he missed out on a delivery which Albert took for him.

“Hey William, your girlfriend came over again. You’ve got mail.”

“Why do you keep calling her that?” Birkin huffed and defensively took the note from his colleague. He didn’t usually let anything distract him from work, but he always would read the amusing notes that his assistant would leave for him.

_“Here’s your week supply of fresh viruses, please do not eat or drink in case of choking hazard ;) Also I came up with another joke for you: Did you hear oxygen went on a date with potassium? It went OK.”_

Birkin laughed out loud, perhaps too loud.

“Really, William? Is it that funny? I thought potassium oxide would be written as K2O.”

“Oh Albert, you’re clearly just jealous I prefer science jokes over yours.” It was indeed strange for Birkin to disregard scientific accuracy over anything, but working in a dark laboratory with equally dark research and experiments left him craving for a little humour in his life.

~

It was one of the few days Albert called in sick. Birkin hoped it wasn’t due to accidentally ingesting viruses from their lab. A lot of Birkin’s work involved a lot of waiting, and waiting required some kind of company to pass the time. Figuring it was pointless to stay in his workspace by himself, he went to the canteen and decided to get something more than just free pasty sandwiches given around the block.

He was pleasantly surprised when he saw a familiar face walking up to his table.

“Hey, look who’s here! Mind if I join?”

It was his newest assistant. Birkin put down his drink immediately. “Of course not. Make yourself at home.”

“Thanks. You know, I never see you around here. Do you not like coming out of the lab?”

“You’ve got me figured out.” He always seemed to be laughing around this woman. “Consider my appearance here to be Umbrella’s version of Northern Lights.”

“Ha! I see you every week anyway though, so clearly I must be very lucky.”

Birkin blushed. “If you consider seeing my face a lucky thing.”

“You did just imply you were pretty enough to be called Northern Lights.”

The air of flirtation around them was obvious, but eventually as they continued to eat, they explored more serious topics.

“So how’s your project going, Dr Birkin?”

“Just the usual. No interesting breakthroughs so far. What about you? Are you involved in research yourself? I’ve never had the chance to ask you that.”

“Yeah. See, I kind of chose to work in your department because I’m also into virology.” The woman’s friendly face soon looked more serious. “You ever heard of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome?”

“Yes, I’ve heard of it.” Even though Birkin always kept up to date with emerging viruses, he couldn’t avoid the politics that came with the topic as of late.

“We’re doing research with virus samples isolated from patients who were affected with said syndrome. The virus seems to destroy the immune system through a mechanism we’re trying to figure out. So that’s what my thesis is based on, and I help perform some of the laboratory tests.”

“Interesting. You plan on sticking with virology once your research is complete?”

“Absolutely. Perhaps when I graduate, I’d like to try and discover a vaccine against this virus. It’s had such a devastating effect – not only in what it does to the body, but how it makes society react. I’ve seen friends and family’s lives get torn apart by it.”

“It must be hard to watch.” Birkin knew she was the real deal from the way she spoke. He could also tell immediately she had a good heart – her passion was driven by her genuine desire to help others. He couldn’t help but be intrigued enough to get involved in such a topic. “You know, I’d be interested to make some contribution to your project. I’m always trying to learn more about these new viruses. If you ever need a hand then you know where to find me.”

“Oh! Do you really mean it, Dr Birkin? I-I’d hate to waste your time…”

Birkin chuckled. “I mean it. My time with researching viruses is never a waste. And please, call me William.” He reached out to shake the woman’s hand, and was about to say her name – until he realized he had never asked for it in all this time.

“Annette,” she intervened. “Sorry, I should have written my name down on those notes…” Clearly Birkin’s face gave away the awkwardness, but he settled to replace it with a smile after knowing his colleague better.

~

“Hey, Dr Birkin and Wesker, here’s your…whoa!”

Annette came into the steamy room which the look on her face made it obvious she wasn’t expecting. Birkin turned around to look at her. “Oh, hello! Sorry, it’s a bit hectic here, but you can just put the box in the usual place. Thanks.”

“What’s going on here?” Annette put down the package and walked to where the two men were concentrating on what looked like they were cooking something illegal.

Birkin coughed before he started to explain. “We’re trying to form a new unique gel to use as a cell culture for viruses, but the way to synthesize some of these chemicals is really odd and we’re having to steam and distil all these ingredients. Nobody else agreed to take up the task for us, so we had no choice but to do it on our own. It’s a complete nightmare.”

“A nightmare indeed,” Wesker repeated. “We haven’t even had time to pick up those virus tubes sitting in the incubator yet.”

“Maybe I can help you boys out,” Annette suggested. “I don’t actually have anything to do other than write my thesis, and that I can do at home. This looks like it could be exciting!”

“It won’t be once you’ve been doing it for hours,” Birkin said, taking off his goggles and handing them over to Annette. “But your help would be most appreciated.”

Annette blinked. “Dr Birkin, why are you giving these to me?”

“They’re the only ones not being used in this entire block, unfortunately. I shouldn’t make you come help us out by exposing you to danger, so please take them. Good thing Albert here already wears his own protective eye wear every day.”

Albert didn’t reply to that, too concentrated on whatever chemical process he was working on – Birkin didn’t care so much for the things that didn’t involve real time action with viruses.

Annette humbly put on Birkin’s goggles on herself. "What about you though, Doctor? Won't it be dangerous for you?"

"It shouldn't be too dangerous unless I have prolonged exposure. I've squirted acid into my eyes by accident before and they're still here. I'm sure they can survive anything now." Birkin thought perhaps he could do with a pair of sunglasses as well, after all. "Anyway, let's get to business. You know your way around this lab?"

“Yes! So what do you need me to do?” The new assistant looked ready to take on whatever challenges they had.

“Well first, those virus cells have been sitting in the incubator too long, so we need them out as soon as we can. You need to pipette them into those centrifuge tubes and then leave them to spin around for 15 minutes, then while you’re waiting, put the rest of the samples into the PCR machine and then once you’ve done that, we need you to take Albert’s eggs and take a small sample of the yolk and then mix those with the tubes filled with blood cells, then put those in the same incubator, and…”

“William.” Albert interrupted. “I think that’s already too much information to deal with. Spare her some trouble and let her complete those tasks first.”

“My bad. Sorry, Annette.” Birkin’s face heated up, though it might have been from all that steam. “Is that all right with you so far?”

“No problem! I’ll get on with it right away.”  

Soon the three made the lab resemble some kind of restaurant in a chaotic hour. Birkin and Wesker were doing their best to multitask though they mostly remained on the same spot, while it was Annette who ran around all over the place trying to find these. She was quite efficient and graceful, a nice contrast from Birkin’s own state. She definitely deserved those goggles more than him.

“All right, I’ve come to the part where you told me to put these egg cells in with blood…except I can’t find any fresh blood in here.”

“Damnit! We must have ran out.” Birkin looked around in panic. “Albert, I’m going to leave you for a few minutes. Bear with me.” He reached out for a cupboard containing a needle and several syringes and a blood donor bag without any labels. He quickly wiped his arm with sanitizer and handed the needle over to Annette. “Can you take bloods?”

“Um…I’ve done it a few times, but…”

“Don’t worry, it’s easy. I found one spot you can take it from.” A healthy vein was visible and ready for the taking. “If you take 500ml of blood that should suffice.”

“I-if you say so.” Annette hesitantly inserted the thin metal into his arm, though he barely felt it. He watched as she took out the red substance out of him through the plastic tube. “Hey, I’ll share another joke with you to keep you distracted. Did you just mutate for a stop codon? Because you’re talking nonsense.”

Birkin laughed – perhaps too loud again. “That’s a great one! You never seem to run out of these amazing jokes.”

“I’m glad you find them so amusing, Dr Birkin.”

A few moments later, some kind of exploding sound was heard from Albert’s direction. “Excuse me, but when you two are done, I need a bit of assistance here.”

“Sorry!” Annette finished up with her latest task and swiftly wiped Birkin’s arm clean. Once they were ready, they ran up to Albert to try and figure out just what that sound was, and why there there was suddenly more steam coming out of the tube than before.

~

Birkin arrived early in his lab that Friday – but someone else had arrived earlier than him, and it wasn’t Albert.

“Annette?”

She was making her usual deliveries and even taking out the contents in preparation for Birkin’s work. She turned around, her face slightly solemn.

“Dr Birkin. I’m glad you came today.”

“Is everything all right?” Birkin walked up to her and looked with concern.

“I’m fine. But…I thought I’d let you know this will be the last time I deliver a package to you. I’m being moved from this department next week, unfortunately. I think they didn’t find our research was going in a sufficient direction so they’re concentrating my efforts to go elsewhere.”

“Are you serious?!” Birkin genuinely couldn’t believe anyone would consider Annette’s research not worthy of pursuing. She was studying an important topic, and she was very good at it. “So…you’re leaving?”

“I’ll still be here in Umbrella, but the place I’m based at is nowhere near this part of the building. Maybe I’ll catch you around somewhere? Well, I know you don’t really come out of your little cave here, so probably not. In case that happened, I wanted to at least give you a proper goodbye, as well as thank you for all the help you’ve given me and letting me assist you.”

“Annette…” Birkin quickly went to fetch some spare paper on his desk. “I… You've been a really good assistant - no, a colleague, and I should be thanking you. Your passion in virology can’t go to waste - maybe I can one day hire you for a position?! But...if you really must leave, at least let me give you a note this time.”

“Oh?”

Birkin scribbled something down and just as quick as he finished writing, he took Annette’s hand and opened it so he could place the note on it. Annette gasped.

“Y-you’re giving me your number?”

“Give me a call…if you want, that is.” Birkin looked away and felt himself blushing, a feeling he realized was familiar to him whenever he was around Annette. “I’m sorry it’s not a science joke.”

“Doctor…I-I’m…”

“Please,” Birkin smiled, looking back at Annette. “William is fine.”

“Right. William.” Annette smiled back nervously. “William, thank you. I’ll definitely get in touch with you soon.”

Birkin let her hand go – _too long, William_. He hoped he didn’t ruin his impressions with Annette over that one small detail. For the rest of the day, he remembered the feeling of butterflies in his stomach. It was difficult to concentrate on his work, something that almost never happened to him.

All he thought of was whether Annette would really call back or not.

~

The phone at home rang, and Birkin almost tripped over to pick it up.

“William.” It was Albert’s voice. “I wanted to ask about that report on the latest cell culture. I don’t quite understand what the results are saying and I wanted to check if-“

“Oh! A-Albert, sorry, call me back later, I’m busy.” Birkin instantly hung up. He felt guilty rejecting Albert like that, but he couldn’t take any chances. Hopefully Albert would understand. If it was that urgent then Albert knew where to find him. Birkin would call him back later.

He felt incredibly silly, but it was his obligation to wait for Annette. It was his smartass idea to hand her his number rather than ask for hers so that should they miss each others’ calls, the other could at least call back. _Real smart._

It was about twenty minutes before there was another call. Birkin had done nothing in the interim other than sit and think, so he was able to pick it up immediately.

“H-hey…is this Doctor - I mean, William?”

“Annette!” Birkin felt his face lighten up right in the moment her voice was heard again. “H-how are you?”

“Sorry I took so long to call back. I didn’t get back from work until now. I thought the first thing I’d do is catch up with you and see how things were doing.”

“R-really?” Birkin felt a soothing kind of tingle when he realized Annette thought of him first thing when she arrived home. She must have had better things to do, but she chose to talk to him instead. “That’s...really nice of you. Thanks…”

“Hey William, I thought of another joke…”

In that evening, both William and Annette smiled and laughed all night long.

**Author's Note:**

> As with most my fics I based Annette on the Darkside Chronicles version. I like the fact that while her dumbass husband was making viruses that wrecked humanity, she did the actual decent thing of creating a vaccine for it, hence why I explored this aspect of her interest in virology in this fic.  
> It might sound a bit silly Annette is asking her superior if he's heard of a very well known virus, but remember this fic would have taken place somewhere in the early 80's, where HIV/AIDs was still a huge controversial topic with many different names going around it.  
> I admit I have no idea what's going on in the lab scene. It's been a while since I last did any biochemistry...


End file.
